tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322Tue, 29 Nov 2016 14:37:42 +0000Ali's storymissionsbooksbook reviewsCalvary Chapel Fort LauderdaledevoShepherd's StaffÜber Christ FollowersfamilyJeff Jacksonaaron's vidsfun videorunningministryCalvary ChapelGood News of South Floridapodcastpoliticschurch plantingBobby MichaelswritingBonoforgivenessbookHaitiThomas NelsonCalvary Chapel JupiterAarondoing churchiPhoneAfricaCambodiaDonald MillerUrban Youth Impactcultureprayerprayer requestsMusicianariesN.T. WrightSBSfree stuffuseful for meBob Coyaudio booksgrace to meministry failuremusic reviews2007 SE Calvary Chapel Pastors ConferenceUgandachurch lifefree2007 Northwest Calvary Pastors ConferenceArc PotentialsCalvaryWordHungaryJulian SmithporntestingCarter's VidsChristianity TodayCompassion in Jesus' NameCovenant EyesOne World Missionpersecutiontech2008 Inland Northwest Pastor's and Leader's ConferenceCalvary Chapel Pastors ConferenceChuck SmithCompeanCross InternationalMEOPatmosemerging/emergentmusicphysical therapytrainingBrian BrodersonCrownDan PlourdeExaminer.comJesusKenyaLRAMissionary GodPiperSpringsteencomedyfree musiclusttodd bentleyyanceyActive WordAdventure Learning CentreAli storyAppsBob BarnesBritt MerrickCalvary Chapel Port St. LucieColsonDamien KyleDan MondokGayle ErwinInvisible ChildrenLeadershipRavi ZachariasRelevant MagazineRomansSubmissionSudanTaylorWes BentleyWorkWrightbrand newfaithfakefake mammariesgospelhigh sierra pastors conferencehypocrisynewsletterreligionsocial mediawebMondok Bloghttp://www.bryonmondok.com/noreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)Blogger1911125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-8235453407260332632Wed, 09 Nov 2016 01:33:00 +00002016-11-08T20:34:48.971-05:00Missionary GodmissionsShepherd's StaffPlace of Preparation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ssmfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/rock-climber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ssmfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/rock-climber.jpg" height="210" width="400" />&nbsp;</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p>Greg Clark was running toward me. <i>AT</i> me. The football was descending in a perfect arc. I was prepared. My feet were planted. I was going to receive the kick. I watched the ball. I watched Clark. The ball falling and Clark running; both happened in slow motion. He was wearing a white jersey in practice that day. <i>He’s number 44 this year</i>, I remember thinking. <i>Wasn’t Clark number 40 last year? He’s got those new cleats on. They’re really tearing up the turf. I’m going to catch this ball. Clark is going to flatten me.</i> The ball made a <b><i>THUNK!</i></b> sound as I caught it. Clark’s helmet made a <b><i>CRACK!</i></b> sound as he plowed me down.</p><h3><p>During preparation, time stands still</h3>Time stands still when you’re waiting. Every single one of those thoughts went through my head while I waited for that ball to descend into my arms. To this day I remember Greg Clark’s number. <i>Both</i> numbers!</p> <p>If you’re a missionary waiting to leave for the mission field, time is frozen. It’s like you’re in a science fiction movie and moments you’re walking through right now have stretched themselves into transparent worm holes. You’re watching people in the world around you whiz by. You see every acute detail, but, for you, time is warped around you; it’s dragging by.</p> <p>Embrace it. This time warp is God ordained. The purpose: preparation.</p> <p>If you are a missionary destined for cross-cultural ministry on a foreign field, time is standing still. You’re trying to sell your house. Your days on your “real job” (that’s what your dad calls it) are coming to an end. You’re beginning to put together a fund-raising plan. You’re crafting an elevator pitch about what you’re doing, where you’re going, and how God <i>called <b>you</b></i> to this craziness. You just <i>get there</i> and get this new life started. But God has you waiting.</p> <p>This is a time of intense preparation. Relax (crazy advice right now, I know). In your situation, this is normal. Be wise and prayerful and, like an athlete, be methodical with this time. In this season, you’ll be able to take in and process a lot more information than you realize.</p> <p>The Apostle Paul relied heavily on word pictures of athletes and sports to illustrate the biblical principles he taught.</p> <h3>Runner and boxer</h3><p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A16&amp;version=NIV" target="_blank">Philippians 2</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+2%3A2&amp;version=NIV" target="_blank">Galatians 2</a>, Paul writes about a runner in a race. Runners are always running so that when they race, they’ll finish well. The key: practice, training, and preparation.</p> <p>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+tim+4%3A7&amp;version=NIV" target="_blank">2 Timothy 4</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+9%3A24-26&amp;version=NIV" target="_blank">1 Corinthians 9</a>, Paul talks about runners in a race, but he also tosses in images of boxing matches. Not only do runners run, but fighters fight. If they don’t it <i>before</i> the match, they won’t be any good <i>in</i> the match.</p> <p><b>Listen up, missionary minded Christ-follower:</b> if you’re not doing it now, chances are, you won’t do it later. This a time of preparation.</p><h3>Free climber preparation</h3><p>In this video, you’ll meet Alex Honnold. Honnold is a rock climber specializing in a discipline known as free soloing. Honnold and a buddy spend time together preparing the path that Honnold will later free-solo.</p> <p>If Honnold falls, he dies. Ultimately, more time and relationship building is spent preparing for the climb than the actual climb. Watch as time stands still for Alex Honnold.</p> <iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Phl82D57P58" width="560"></iframe><br /><h3><p>The runner and the spectators</h3>In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12%3A1&amp;version=NIV" target="_blank">Hebrews 12:1</a>, the author describes a runner running a race. In this example, however, those witnessing the event – your event – are who the author focuses on as if your race takes place in a sports arena. Those watching your life are on the edge of their seats. <i>“What’s going to happen next?”</i> Everyone watching you wants to know.</p> <p>People are watching you now. But this is only the beginning. From here on out, you will be the subject of intense interest for those witnessing your life. God’s called you to this. The effort you put into preparation now will determine how the race is run. What’s your story going to be? Decide now before time speeds back up.</p><hr />This blog post originally appeared on the <a href="http://ssmfi.org/prayer/place-of-preparation/">Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators Blog</a>.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/11/place-of-preparation_8.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-441262911553119912Mon, 26 Sep 2016 13:37:00 +00002016-09-26T15:13:26.858-04:00Ali's storyGood News of South FloridaThe Rewards and Challenges of Parenting a Special Needs Child<div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">“Honey,” my mom would say, “Don’t stare. That’s not polite. No, don’t point.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">But I couldn’t look away from a child in a wheelchair. We all grew up politely looking the other way when we pass by someone with special needs.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/family-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://goodnewsfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/family-1.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>Our lives were suddenly disrupted when a child with special needs came into our family. No one makes a plan to parent a special needs child. The child simply arrives and the day she does is tragic and life as you know it is redefined for you.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">Our special needs little girl, our Allie, is really our granddaughter. Allie was born perfectly healthy to my daughter when she was nineteen and single. Her life, our lives, were suddenly overwhelmed the day Allie became a brain injured child through a violent event when Allie was ten months old. She was shaken and suffocated by someone that was watching her when my daughter was at work. Allie was in a coma for ten days. She emerged from her coma severely disabled. Her diagnosis is cerebral palsy and quadriplegia.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">As a single mother, our young daughter was not able to care for Allie. My wife and I could not fathom the thought of our granddaughter going into foster care in her condition. It was not an option. We did what we thought anyone would do: we adopted Allie and became the parents of a severely disabled little girl.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">That was nine years ago. I want to say we’ve become accustomed to parenting a special needs child, but we haven’t. Being a parent is never easy, and parenting a special needs child is often an exhausting, all-consuming existence. Days are scheduled, routine and packed with hands-on care beginning with medicines and getting her dressed and into equipment needed to keep her upright while we feed her. At nine years old, Allie is not able to do any of these simple tasks for herself and, most likely, never will.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">The joys of school</strong></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">The part of her morning that is most fun is when I roll her down the walkway to meet the school bus. She shrieks with joy and excitement every time I roll her down our walkway, slightly running, stomping my flip-flops to meet the bus. Allie and the driver share a good laugh when she rides the wheelchair lift up onto the bus. There’s an attendant waiting on the bus that gives Allie compliments on her ensemble as she straps her chair into place for a safe, secure ride to school.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">Allie loves going to school. Allie is in fourth grade this year. At school, education revolves around using cause-and-effect devices for communicating, physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy. School nurses administer mid-day doses of medicine. The phys-ed teacher straps her into equipment that helps her walk and, recently, ride a big tricycle. The teachers, nurses, therapists, administrators and other staff at Allie’s school have dedicated their lives to children with special needs. We’d be lost without them.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Continuous medical care</strong></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">The school day is interrupted many times with routine visits to doctors. Allie has epileptic seizures that are managed by daily medication. So we see Dr. Reznick, her neurologist, every 90 days. Once a quarter, Allie sees a rehabilitation doctor, Dr. Cohen, who orders changes on her wheelchair, prescribes orthotic braces and refers Allie to specialists when needed. On a recent visit, Dr. Cohen noticed that one of Allie’s legs was not growing the same length as the other. She (Dr. Cohen) referred Allie to an orthopedic specialist and we learned that Allie’s right hip joint was migrating out of the socket as she was experiencing a growth spurt. Due to her brain injury, bones and muscle growth were not in sync. Bones growing faster than muscles produced enough tension on her muscles to pull her bones out of socket. Surgery was needed soon or her hip would dislocate.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">This surgery is traumatic and invasive. The doctor has to break and and reposition the femur. Then he breaks the pelvis and reshapes the hip socket to properly receive the joint. A metal plate is fixed to the broken femur to add strength as it heals. Finally, muscles have to be lengthened. This is done through a series of cuts in her adductor muscle and hamstring. The hip and leg are immobilized for six weeks by a spica cast extending from her abdomen to her right heel. The cast includes her left thigh with a cross bar installed into the cast to hold her legs apart in a Y-shape.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">The cast adds twenty pounds to her weight which makes her too heavy and awkward for my wife to carry. My boss, graciously let me work from home while Allie was in the cast to lend my wife a hand during the six weeks of post-surgery healing and recuperation. Family and friends rallied around us to bring us meals and help with household chores.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">Allie had this surgery six years ago so we were semi-familiar with the work and care Allie needed. We pray that as Allie continues to grow, this will be the last time she has to have this surgery, but we may have to face this again.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;"><a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/family-2.jpg" rel="lightbox[30092]" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2ba6cb; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="family-2" class="alignright" src="http://goodnewsfl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/family-2-300x246.jpg" style="border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; float: right; height: auto; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 15px; max-width: 100%;" /></a>Bottomless love</strong></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">This sounds like a difficult way to live because it is. Raising children–any children–is no easy task and taking care of them when there are special needs adds to the difficulty. We’ve had to reorder our lives. We don’t get to do many of the things we used to take for granted (wheelchairs don’t go places that don’t have smooth, wide paths). People don’t plan social gatherings around our routine so we miss those opportunities (to be honest, we love having a bullet-proof excuse to opt-out of tedious events).</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">As difficult, inconvenient and unconventional as raising a special needs child is, the rewards for us in our personal lives are deeply satisfying. There is a transaction of unconditional love that flows two ways between us in our relationship with Allie. We’ve discovered a capacity to love that is bottomless. When this is tested, we reach the end of the trial long before we reach the bottom of our love. Her responses to our affection are uninhibited. There is a shorthand — an encoded language — between Allie and her caregivers that the only way to decode is through spending time with her. Joy flows when the connection is made.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">A man after God’s heart</strong></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;">One of our favorite stories in the Bible is about King David when he is moved to bless surviving members of King Saul’s family. David was loyal to King Saul long after his death and David craved an opportunity to prove it. Saul had a surviving grandson, Mephibosheth, who, as a result of an accident, was crippled in both feet. David cared for Mephibosheth and provided for him for the rest of his life. God often referred to David as a “man after God’s own heart” and while David’s shortcomings were many, this act of compassion is an example of goodness that pays dividends to David as the giver more than to Mephibosheth, the receiver. Parents of special needs children know this experience firsthand.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><hr />This article originally posted in the May 2016 issue of the <a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/rewards-challenges-parenting-special-needs-child/">Good News of South Florida</a>. http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/05/the-rewards-and-challenges-of-parenting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-2657814664002704738Sun, 25 Sep 2016 11:27:00 +00002016-09-25T07:29:09.594-04:00Wisdom bomb from Dallas Willard in his book: Renovation of the HeartIn one of C. S. Lewis’s more striking passages, he challenges us&nbsp;<div><br></div><div><i>to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. . . . There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations— these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit— immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div><div>C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973), p. 15.</div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yzR8g6Udrkk/V-e1BGuMGuI/AAAAAAAAIvE/9Gwulxwglec/s640/blogger-image-758334252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yzR8g6Udrkk/V-e1BGuMGuI/AAAAAAAAIvE/9Gwulxwglec/s640/blogger-image-758334252.jpg"></a></div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/09/wisdom-bomb-from-dallas-willard-in-his.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-4037953705169342831Tue, 20 Sep 2016 16:37:00 +00002016-09-20T12:39:08.176-04:00missionsCasa Bernabé<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc70Lkeg94M/V-FlG5VKdCI/AAAAAAAAIus/vzRL1Qj9LkcqxaxZ1QGUFWm8Rn9g20xPwCLcB/s1600/Casa-Bernabe-wall.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bc70Lkeg94M/V-FlG5VKdCI/AAAAAAAAIus/vzRL1Qj9LkcqxaxZ1QGUFWm8Rn9g20xPwCLcB/s640/Casa-Bernabe-wall.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The need for rescuing orphans grows exponentially here in Guatemala. These needs change depending on the social crisis.<br /><br />"Families are in danger of extinction. But the family is the most important thing the Lord has given us," says Edgar Sagero, assistant director, at Casa Bernabé. Casa Bernabé is an orphanage nestled on a mountainside on the outskirts of Guatemala City.<br /><br />Edgar Sagero is a success story of the ministry that serves orphans, abused children, and their families.<br /><br />"I never left!" Edgar says. He was rescued off the streets as a child, grew up at Casa Bernabé, and, now, he's a leader giving back and making a difference in a new generation of children's lives.<br /><br />When a child is in crisis or reported abused, child protective services brings the child to Casa Bernabé. "The staff meets children on the worst day of their lives," Edgar says. "Only God can heal these kids hearts."<br /><br />Lisenced Christian psychologists walk through the process with children brought here. Children are resilient and adjust to life at Casa Bernabé quickly. The 26 acre compound is a self contained little village with a school, a church, and several houses for children to live in with house parents.<br /><br />House parents accomodate 12 children in a family environment. "We want to make them feel like they're at home; not an orphanage," Edgar said. "They feel like they're in a family with brothers and sisters."<br /><br />The goal of the ministry is to work with families to reunite them with their children. Casa Bernabé takes families through practical and spiritual family skills curriculum based on biblical values.<br /><br />Casa Bernabé teaches children a vocation like computer skills at the high school level. As children age out of the program, the ministry works to get them into higher education at the university level through scholarship programs.<br /><br />Casa Bernabé is set up to host short-term mission teams. Email gcruz@crossinternatioal.org for more information.<br /><br /><hr /><br />This article originally appears on <a href="http://www.crossinternational.city/2016/09/from-the-field-casa-bernabe/">Cross International Church Connect</a>. http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/09/casa-bernabe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-8953357582351047362Wed, 31 Aug 2016 00:48:00 +00002016-08-30T20:48:07.879-04:00WrightGardening<div>If you don't want your garden to grow weeds, one of the best ways is to keep it well stocked with strong, sturdy flowers and shrubs. If you don't want your mind and heart to go wandering off into the realms of darkness, one of the best ways is to keep them well stocked with wise and thankful themes, so that words of comfort, guidance and good judgment come bubbling up unbidden from the memory and subconscious.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>N.T. Wright</div><div>Paul for Everyone | The Prison Letters</div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lo3kAFKBYao/V8YpRgtMcaI/AAAAAAAAIuA/TsFZ7CxydGM/s640/blogger-image-2120194469.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lo3kAFKBYao/V8YpRgtMcaI/AAAAAAAAIuA/TsFZ7CxydGM/s640/blogger-image-2120194469.jpg"></a></div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/08/gardening.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-193509532370555952Tue, 09 Aug 2016 13:39:00 +00002016-08-09T13:35:20.677-04:00Cross InternationalmissionsCross International Church Connect: Hurricane Earl Disaster Relief in Belize<br /><i>This is something we posted at CrossInternational.City Church Connect. As we've watched Hurricane Earl sweep through the Caribbean,&nbsp; Central America, and southern Mexico, colleagues from Cross International have been on the ground in Belize connecting with ministry partners and coordinating relief efforts. Keep up to date <a href="http://www.crossinternational.city/stories/" target="_blank">here</a>.</i><br /><i>Like on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ci.churchconnect/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</i><br /><i>Follow on <a href="https://twitter.com/CIChurchConnect" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ci.city/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> </i><br /><br /><hr /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.crossinternational.city/hurricane-earl-disaster-relief-in-belize/"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pbAM6HV3u1k/V6nbtgrBjJI/AAAAAAAAIp4/5v7JE0UtI-YTegu5XzdjvYV3yH6rGV97wCLcB/s640/hurricane-earl-pic-blog.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><br />Since <a href="http://www.crossinternational.city/hurricane-earl/">we first asked for your prayers</a>, Cross mobilized a team to connect with our long-term partners in Belize to survey Hurricane Earl disaster relief needs. In advance of this trip, we’ve ordered 15 pallets of prepositioned Vitafood and 19 Medical Missions Packs that will be airlifted later this week.<br />As our team drives around Belize City, the hired cab had to avoid the tin sheets and thatched roofs - the items that many houses are constructed from - that were scattered everywhere. All visible evidence of damage point to winds in excess of 100 MPH rather than the 80 MPH wind gusts reported in the news. Belize City is situated at and below sea level (in some places) where storm surge was well over six feet.<br /><br />In addition to the visible evidence of wind damage, the odor of sewage in hurricane-borne water was overwhelming. Sanitation problems are everywhere including at a Cross International partner school that has been commandeered by local authorities as an evacuation center. Even the hotel our team is staying in has no water due to post-hurricane disruption.<br /><br />We are very thankful that our ministry partners in Belize are collaborating with us to distribute emergency food and medical supplies in coming days. As stated above, 15 Medical Missions packs containing 5,700 treatments are being airlifted this week. Pray that the Lord goes before us as we plan through the logistics of emergency food and medical distributions.<br /><br />What follows is the general composition of a Medical Missions pack: <br /><ul><li>Aspirin 325mg 500tab</li><li>Oral Rehydration Salts 1scht</li><li>Multi-Vitamins + Iron, Children's Chewable, Animal Shapes 250tab</li><li>Cephalexin 250mg 500cap</li><li>Acetaminophen 500mg, &nbsp;1,000cap</li><li>Amoxicillin 250mg 100cap</li><li>Amoxicillin Powder for Oral Suspension 125mg/5ml 80ml</li><li>Acetaminophen 160mg/5ml, Children's 118ml</li><li>Silver Sulfadiazine Cream 1% 85gm</li><li>Hydrocortisone 1% Cream, Maximum Strength Anti-Itch with Aloe 28gm</li><li>Triamcinolone Acetonide 0.025% Cream 15gm</li><li>Cefuroxime Axetil 125mg/5ml Oral Suspension</li><li>Ceftin 100ml Multivitamin, Performance Multi Energy Formula 300tab</li><li>Vitamin D3 Baby Drops 400iu 15ml</li><li>Imodium A-D Loperamide HCI 2mg, Anti-Diarrheal 24cap</li><li>Dextromethorphan HBr 15mg</li><li>Robitussin Adult Cold Cough Liqui-Gels Ibuprofen 200mg</li><li>Advil 200mg 50tab</li><li>Ibuprofen 50mg/1.25ml</li><li>Infant's Advil Concentrated Drops 15ml</li><li>Multivitamin, Women's Prenatal 180cap</li></ul>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/08/cross-international-church-connect.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-4990879256801697544Tue, 09 Aug 2016 13:10:00 +00002016-08-09T13:34:59.787-04:00Cross InternationalmissionsCauses That Get the Most Love<i>When international charitable giving is discussed in local circles, inevitably someone will say, "What about the needy and hungry right here in our city? Shouldn't we help them too?"</i><i>That's not a question I disagree with or have a strong opinion about other than the poor here in the U.S. have much more access and infrastructure for responding for needs.</i><br /><i>For international giving, infrastructure for aid also exists, but it is not nearly as stable as domestic charitable outreach. That said,&nbsp; I found this article interesting. I rather than provided a link back because it's a report that requires a sign in. <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/" target="_blank">Click here</a> if you're interested in signing up for a subscription to reports from philanthropy.com</i><br /><hr /><h1 class="content-item__title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: &quot;Roboto Condensed&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.1; margin: 20px 0px 10px;"></h1><h3 class="content-item__title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: &quot;Roboto Condensed&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.1; margin: 20px 0px 10px;">International Aid Groups Get Most Media Attention of Nonprofit Causes, Study Says</h3><div class="content-item__byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: &quot;Roboto Condensed&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 25px 0px 0px;">By Megan O’Neil</div><div class="content-item__story" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.82857; margin-top: 25px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Title:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.mrmediamarks.com/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #009dbf; text-decoration: none;">Mediamarks 2016</a></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Organization:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>Marketing firm M+R</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Summary:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span>The median number of media mentions in 2015 for large U.S.-based nonprofits was 93, according to the study. International aid groups led the way with a median of 261 mentions by news organizations, driven by major events including the deadly earthquake in Nepal and the<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/September-a-Record-Setting/233694" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #009dbf; text-decoration: none;">Syrian civil war and refugee crisis</a>.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Groups that battle poverty in the United States saw the least coverage, with a median of 42 media hits in 2015.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;">The weakest month for news coverage: January, for groups in all categories. This may be because nonprofits ease up on outreach to journalists following their all-absorbing year-end fundraising work, the study says.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;">The study was based on a sample of 40 nonprofits from the<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/interactives/philanthropy-400#id=table_2015" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #009dbf; text-decoration: none;">Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the 400 biggest charities</a></i>. Researchers studied how many times those 40 groups were named or cited by 50 major news outlets including the Associated Press, NPR, and Fox News.</div><h4 class="COPsubhead" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; font-family: &quot;Roboto Condensed&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 30px;">Analyzing Media Coverage</h4><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;">When groups assess their media strategies, leaders should look at what types of media are providing the most hits and if there are specific times of year when there are gaps in coverage, among other things, the study concludes.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 17px;">Among other findings:</div><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Poverty groups saw their media hits peak in November, including a slew of national feature stories on holiday bell-ringers.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Daily newspapers gave nonprofits the most coverage: They published stories mentioning nonprofits at a rate six times that of major broadcast-news shows and 16 times the rate of national magazines.</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nonprofit have a harder time scoring feature stories. Fewer than one in 10 media hits were features, while the balance were just mentions.</li></ul></div><div class="content-item__author-blurb" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #555555; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px 10px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Send an email to<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span><a href="mailto:Megan.O%E2%80%99Neil@philanthropy.com" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #009dbf; text-decoration: none;">Megan O’Neil</a>.</div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/08/causes-that-get-most-love.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-8133810652046908562Wed, 15 Jun 2016 01:26:00 +00002016-06-14T21:37:17.665-04:00Cross InternationalGood News of South FloridamissionsSudanLocal Missionary Distributes Goods in Sudan and Ecuador<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BPQ6VZG5khY/V2CtcKcu43I/AAAAAAAAIlU/gPZwLfUA4qEJDKkn6Exjpj54th0OzZuMQCLcB/s1600/south-sudan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BPQ6VZG5khY/V2CtcKcu43I/AAAAAAAAIlU/gPZwLfUA4qEJDKkn6Exjpj54th0OzZuMQCLcB/s400/south-sudan.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Internally displaced refugees of South Sudan's Civil War. Photo credit: Cross International</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h4><i>This article was originally published in the <a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/30320-2/" target="_blank">Good News of South Florida</a>.</i></h4><hr /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">While we were packing to head to South Sudan to serve those in need, a 7.8 earthquake struck Ecuador on April 16, 2016,</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">” said Mark Mosely of Pompano Beach, FL, based Cross International where Mosely is director of Gifts in Kind (GIK). Mosely also serves as </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Co-chair for the Global Relief Alliance</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. While he was launching a project to respond to a man-made humanitarian crisis, a natural catastrophe resulting in human tragedy struck. Mosely juggled the management of GIK relief responses to two different disasters while in transit to and on the ground in war-torn South Sudan, the world’s youngest country.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">GIK defined<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Gifts in Kind (GIK) donations are goods and services given as charitable donations rather than cash. It is argued that GIK giving provides market efficiency that cash donations can’t provide. For example, donated drugs help a charitable organization operate at a much lower cost than it would if it had to use man-power and cash to acquire medicines needed for relief operations. The donation of goods already at hand, especially during times of disaster relief, go much further than using donated cash to purchase the same goods at market prices. GIK are a significant, strategic component for organizations that have a long-term development aid approach as Cross International does.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">History of War in Sudan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">First civil war<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sudan is a country with a long history of war in the latter half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, spilling into the twenty-first century. Conflict is ongoing today in regions of both Sudan and newly formed South Sudan. The first Sudanese Civil War began in 1955 when the predominantly Christian and animist southern tribes demanded more representation in the Muslim dominated government in the north. The south also wanted regional autonomy and shared control of profits pumped out of the oil-rich southern regions. The conflict ended in 1972 with a peace treaty that proved too weak and one-sided to satisfy the south.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Second civil war<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In 1983, a second civil war started. Many geo-political analysts say that it is the same civil war separated by an eleven-year cease fire. In the First Sudanese Civil War that lasted 17 years, a half-million people lost their lives. In the Second Sudanese Civil War, the ugly consequences of the conflict were two million deaths blamed on war, disease, or famine, and four million homeless, displaced souls. The second civil war ended in 2005 in victory for the south resulting in a comprehensive peace agreement including South Sudanese freedom to vote for their own independent country in what is known as the 2011 referendum.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In 2012, fresh but brief conflict broke out between Sudan and South Sudan over management of oil regions.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ongoing civil wars in Sudan and South Sudan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since then, strife has not ceased. Ongoing conflict in Darfur in Sudan’s western regions continues. The United Nations has accused pro-government Arab militias of ethnic cleansing campaigns against non-Arabs. Skirmishes have spilled over the border into neighboring Chad causing instability along that international boundary as well. On December 15, 2013, a new conflict ignited over newly drawn international boundaries between North and South. Internally, in South Sudan, disputes over how oil revenues are shared has enflamed civil struggle that continues today ranking South Sudan number one on the Fragile States Index in 2014 and 2015, a list maintained by U.S. based think tank Fund for Peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The reality on the ground in South Sudan after decades of war is inadequate roads and lack of infrastructure. Basic supplies and medicines for relief efforts are difficult to acquire.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Cross International Outreach to South Sudan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">A South Sudanese regional public health chief inspected the contents of a basic International Emergency Health Kit (IEHK) and was visibly moved with emotion when he met Mosely and his team at one of their stops on their tour. The chief hadn’t seen medicine in months. Several international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had pulled out of South Sudan with the onset of civil strife leaving the region without medical supplies for an extended period of time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Emotional meetings like these were repeated on several occasions in the Western Equatoria region of South Sudan as IEHKs arrived. Mosely and his team delivered the precious IEHKs to ten different distribution centers on their relief tour through South Sudan. “We’re calling on all of our friends to pray with us for safety and success in this region of the world that is continually under pressure from disease, poverty, and famine, caused by continual armed conflict,” Mark said in communication while on the ground in South Sudan. “The arrival of this product and distribution will bring much needed relief.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;;">Delivery of goods and short-term crisis relief doesn’t complete the mission for Cross International. “</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our primary ministry is working to empower local churches and church-based ministries over the long-term,” says Cross International President and Founder Jim Cavnar. “If you just engage for a few years, maybe something new starts, but will it last? Will it bring about a long term benefit? We’re equipped to provide resources that are invaluable to respond to disasters, but where we really shine is in that long-term commitment to the rebuilding process including housing, water supply, medical clinics, and the rebuilding of schools.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Response in Ecuador<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In Ecuador, repeated earthquakes have hit causing massive devastation in remote areas. </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“The death toll is </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">660, 31 people are missing, in excess of 27,000 are injured, 350,000 people remain in need, and some </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22,400 are sheltered in 39 active shelters and 64 temporary camps,” </span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mosely reported to local leaders on a recent conference call. “</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We’re helping with resources through the health sector, providing enough medicines and supplies to treat 20,000 people for three months.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Cross International already has a number of ministries they’ve been working with for many years in Ecuador, South Sudan, and several other locations around the world. “The disaster phase will pass after a while,” Says Cavnar, “but the long-term needs will still be there, and that’s where our real commitment and strengths lie. We’re still in Haiti. We’re still in the Philippines. We’re still in the Dominican Republic. We’re still in Belize. These are all places we have responded to disasters in the past, but we’re still in those places helping with the long-term growth and development and recovery.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">”</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> <o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> 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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/> </w:LatentStyles></xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]><style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Last year Cross International provided about $100 million in aid in 22 countries. Their goal is to transform the lives of the poor both spiritually and materially. To learn more about what Cross International does and how you can connect with their mission, visit them at <a href="http://crossinternational.org/">crossinternational.org</a>.</span><span style="font-family: &quot;calibri&quot;; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/06/internally-displaced-refugees-of-south.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-1109904681063360217Mon, 30 May 2016 19:48:00 +00002016-05-31T02:56:04.498-04:00book reviewsbooksBook Review: Be Light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z1ioNVTTiRo/V001g78AC7I/AAAAAAAAIhk/1CyBCc1_m6k/s640/blogger-image--1378547165.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z1ioNVTTiRo/V001g78AC7I/AAAAAAAAIhk/1CyBCc1_m6k/s640/blogger-image--1378547165.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br>Book title: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Be-Light-Shining-Beauty-Darkened/dp/1601428162?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=be%20light&amp;qid=1464637460&amp;ref_=sr_1_1&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank">Be Light</a><br>Author: Samuel Rodriguez<br>Colorado Springs, Waterbrook Press, 2016<br>Number of pages: 212<br><h2>Let <u><i>YOU</i></u> Be Light</h2>When I was first handed this book, I didn’t know what I was in for. The book is wrapped in a black and white picture of a well-dressed hispanic man with his palms pushed together in a position of prayer. I told the friend who gave me the book that it looked like it was for readers with more religion than me. Before I dug into the book, I went online to watch videos of Pastor Sam Rodriguez to get a hint of what I was in for.<br><br>Rodriguez is a preacher’s preacher; fiery and theatrical; engaging and engrossing. He has a way with language and can turn a phrase; he’s eloquent and passionate.<br><br>Rodriguez get's my attention from the very beginning of Be Light with the line "Let there be light!" That's where it all starts, right? The way Rodriguez defined "light" and explores the word from so many angles gave me something to chew on all day. So, mission accomplished, Sam!<br><br>That’s right. Rodriguez wrote the book and formatted it with a thirty day “journey” in mind for the reader. Each one of the Be Light’s thirty chapters are meant to be read in less than ten minutes each day for thrity days. Each chapter’s goal is to challenge the reader to be light.<br><br>Chapter one starts with some powerful, quotable phrases that show that Rodriguez is more than a fiery preacher. He’s a thinker and wants those he communicates with to engage with him at a cerebral level always turning his phrases over in their minds. "Let there be light!" This is how Rodriguez opens his dialogue with readers. This is a powerful, biblical quote from Genesis One and echoes of the gospel of John. Rodriguez has the reader’s. It evokes layers of meaning that readers are forced to think about and personally apply.<br><br>Rodriguez writes about a "canopy of disillusionment" which seems to be a familiar concept to many a cynical Christian. We've become used to disillusionment and let allowed our faith to hibernate, inneffective, impotent, fat, and lazy. This is unacceptable, according to Rodriguez. It's time to “throw off dissillusionment” because there's no purpose for it in God's economy.<br><br>I love the way he ends the first chapter by contrasting biblical heroes with villains. We need more REAL heroes in our lives.<br><br>In chapter two, Rodrigurez employs the scientific term "reflective coefficient." The biblical application here is that sometimes I reflect God's light, and other times, I absorb every bit of it.<br><br>In chapter three, Rodriguez discusses the battle that rages between light and dark. Darkness wants to shut down light in the Christian’s life. Even Christians (especially Christians?) can live in the darkness that comes from unbelief and unforgiveness.<br><br>This chapter caused me to take a personal inventory as I read through it. Am I withholding forgiveness from somebody? I think I am. Do I have what it takes to get the process of forgiving and reflecting light into the life of the person who has offended me? I hope I do. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give me courage to be humble.<br><br>Those are all the spoilers I’m going to give you, friend. As thought provoking as it is, Be Light is an easy read. The time you invest in this book will be time well spent. As you come to the end of the Be Light journey, it’s Rodriguez’s goal that &nbsp;somehow, someway, God will use you to be one of the heroes that turn on the lights in the world God has placed you in. Get the book and read it with your tribe.<br><br>»<a href="http://belightbook.com/" target="_blank">Book website</a><br><br>»<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Rev-Samuel-Rodriguez-184231868315206/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Pastor Samuel Rodriguez on Facebook</a><br><br><br>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/05/book-review-be-light.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-5692100439984399911Mon, 09 May 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-05-09T09:00:08.465-04:00devoHow to Find Holy Balance<strong><em>“But select from all the people some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as leaders over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten.”—</em>Exodus 18:21 NLT</strong><br /><br /> Many sons hate the idea of working in the family business. Many pastors’ daughters quit church after high school. These kids grew up watching Dad build “the family business” or “the ministry.” Meanwhile, Dad was depleted. Their families were robbed of time together.<br /><br /> The day before Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, said the words quoted in the verse above, he had just returned with Moses’ wife and sons. Moses had sent them away, and while the Bible doesn’t spell out the reasons for their separation, there was tremendous conflict that preceded the separation.<br /><br /> Moses told Jethro all that the Lord had done to bring deliverance and provision as Israel fled Egypt. Jethro was so amazed by all God had done, he was moved to make a public declaration of faith and praise by offering God a sacrifice. “I know now that the Lord is greater than all other gods,” Jethro declared.<br /><br /> While Jethro was amazed with all that God had done, he was a lot less impressed with how Moses was running things; Moses was a one-man show.<br /><br /> “I inform the people of God’s decrees and give them His instruction,” Moses says (Exodus 18:16 NLT). Jethro responds by basically saying, “Well, this is not good. You’re not really getting much accomplished doing this all by yourself. Your frustrating the people by making them wait all day and exhausting yourself. Find some guys to help you. Train them in the things God has shown you and then watch how much you <em>ALL</em> can get done” (Exodus 18:17-23).<br /><br /> Jethro, as the grandfather of Moses’s children, was invested and keenly interested in the future of both Moses and Israel as a nation. Their destinies were intertwined. Moses, as the leader of Israel, also needed to be Moses the dad and leader of his family.<br /><br /> Pastor and author Gordon MacDonald says, “The legacy you leave is dependent on the men you train, the men you do life together with, and the relationships you invest into and nurture for balance.”<br /><br /> This principle works in so many areas of how we do church, work, leadership, family, and community building. We’re called to steward this balance. On our own, it can feel like juggling with fine china. But, in the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, it looks, feels, and sounds like a symphony.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/05/how-to-find-holy-balance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-2356706183380372161Thu, 05 May 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-05-05T09:00:12.747-04:00devoHow You Want to Be Remembered<strong><em>“The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.”—</em>Proverbs 10:7 (NKJV)</strong><br /><br /> Everyone dies. That’s a fact. Flesh decays and bones dry out. The only things the dead leave are memories.<br /><br /> The Jews had a tradition when speaking of the memory of a just man: “Let his memory be blessed,” they’d say. Nothing would be said of the unjust man. The memories of the wicked, like their rotting flesh, are useless and disgusting, “eaten with worms.”<br /><br /> No one wants to touch the memories of the wicked with a ten-foot pole. They are treated with contempt. Just by the mention of their name makes you wrinkle your nose like the smell of rotting road kill. Bad behavior and the commission of evil deeds leave a legacy of rottenness, and often, generations of destroyed lives.<br /><br /> Proverbs chapter 10 is a list of contrasts written down by the wise King Solomon to train readers in righteousness. Observe a few:<br /> <ul><li><em>Wise</em> versus <em>foolish</em></li><li><em>Slack</em> versus <em>diligent</em></li><li><em>Blessing </em>versus <em>violence</em></li><li><em>Integrity</em> versus <em>perversion</em></li><li><em>Rich</em> versus <em>poor</em></li></ul>These contrasting words describe choices and actions. Solomon pairs contrast with literary metaphor to strengthen the description of both desired and disastrous outcomes. He teaches that one can choose his choices, but one cannot choose his consequences.<br /><br /> In the New Testament, when we first meet the apostle Paul, he is introduced as Saul and he is present at the stoning of the Christian evangelist Stephen (Acts 7). He is known as a persecutor of the followers of Jesus. He hunted people down and jailed them for having the wrong faith and politics; splitting up families and destroying the newfound peace early Christians found through salvation in Jesus. If that were all Saul did in his life, we would never know his name. If he had never encountered Jesus, his name would have rotted along with his flesh and bones when he died.<br /> But Saul <em>did</em> encounter Jesus. In the exchange, Saul got a new name, a new life, and a new mission that was in complete contrast with the one he had. He went from . . .<br /> <ul><li>Destroying lives to discipling men and women in the faith</li><li>Separating families to uniting groups of families into churches</li><li>Cursing people for their faith in Jesus to setting them free with the historic, holy, and transforming words we read in the New Testament.</li></ul>If you encounter Jesus, make the wise choice. Follow Him. Watch Him change the memories you leave along with the lives you impact.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/05/how-you-want-to-be-remembered.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-7153521742844434370Mon, 02 May 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-05-02T09:00:01.685-04:00devoThe Devil and Debunking Jesus<strong><em>“Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.”—</em>Matthew 12:30 (NLT)</strong><br /><br /> Some of the most amazing things I’ve seen are the pyramids in Egypt. They are awesome structures. Their construction has stumped scholars for eons. When I was a boy, the bestseller, <em>Chariot of the Gods</em>, explained that the pyramids and other sites of wonder were built with alien technology. The structures and technology employed couldn’t be human–the achievement is too advanced! Space travelers must have lent us their technology to influence ancient science and religion.<br /><br /> If you’ve made up your mind about someone and you really can’t endorse them as being smart or special or talented, or in Jesus’ case, the Son of God, you’d have to come up with another theory to explain the things you see with your own eyes. That’s what happened with the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. They looked for a way to debunk Jesus. If God was behind the miracles Jesus was doing, then God must have endorsed Jesus healing on the Sabbath, forgiving harlots, eating with sinners, befriending tax collectors, and welcoming outcasts.<br /><br /> So they blamed the devil and said Jesus was doing His work by the power of Satan—basically charging Jesus with witchcraft. If they could get enough people to back this idea, it would be the end of Jesus. Ending Jesus became their agenda.<br /><br /> Jesus laid it out for them: If you reject Him, you are rejecting God’s plan for Israel, and ultimately, for all mankind.<br /><br /> This is a serious warning for us to heed today. The author of Hebrews warns believers not to drift from away from Christ. As you remember when you first came to faith in Jesus, you <em>know</em> Jesus did a miracle in your heart. People <em>saw</em> a change in you. And because you became <em>so</em> different they asked you about it and that opened the door for you to talk about Jesus. You didn’t know any deep theological stuff, but you had an experience with Him that changed your life and you were able to talk about it. People who witnessed it called it a miracle.<br /><br /> Now that you’ve known Jesus for a while, and time has passed between today and that day when you gave your heart to the Lord, you’re tempted to call that work a work of emotion or the convincing words of a charismatic leader or teacher. You’re drifting.<br /><br /> Don’t give anyone or anything credit for the work Jesus has done by His Spirit. There’s nothing or no one else to turn to if you turn away from Jesus.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/05/the-devil-and-debunking-jesus.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-7404070320469519495Thu, 28 Apr 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-04-28T09:00:40.087-04:00devoGod Has a Job For You<strong><i>“‘Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts.”</i> —Haggai 2:4 (NKJV)</strong><br /><br /> “Hey, can you come out and play,” my buddy Mark from down the street came and asked me early one Saturday morning. “No, I gotta mow the lawn,” I told him. “Awe, man! I am SO glad I’m not you. I hate mowing the lawn,” Mark said. I told him I liked it and he replied with, “You’re weird.”<br /><br /> Maybe I am weird. But I like work. I like the smell of gas, oil, and exhaust. I felt privileged to use my dad’s lawn mower and gas-powered weed eater. I loved the way the yard looked when the grass had that manicured look by the fence and around the trees. I was proud when I took my dad outside and showed him how I mowed perfectly geometric lines across the yard. He was pleased with my work. That meant everything to me. He always gave me a few bucks to spend afterward. That was a great Saturday.<br /><br /> What my friend didn’t know was that I didn’t get to see my dad very often. My parents were divorced and my dad’s job moved him 1,000 miles away. Since I lived without a father, I was excited to be with him in his house. And he never hid that he was happy to have me with him. I didn’t have to mow the grass. I <em>got</em> to mow the grass. The work was all a bonus. It was one the benefits of being with my dad.<br /><br /> Because of your faith in Jesus, you don’t have to work to get God to <em>accept</em> you. But God has work He wants to share with you—a gospel project. He has a role made specifically for you and tasks to move His project forward. This is work you <em>get</em> to do.<br /><br /> God’s Spirit is at work in you as you do His work. Sometimes the beginning of the work is small and seemingly insignificant, but a bigger job is around the corner. According to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14–30, there’s a place God wants to promote you to. Be faithful, do the work well, and watch how God uses you in the future. Your participation in the work now holds a place of greater responsibility for you in the future. That’s both a hope and a promise.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/god-has-job-for-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-4514191432320910851Mon, 25 Apr 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-04-25T09:00:12.723-04:00devoGod’s Words Get the Job Done<strong><i>“Yet my friends laugh at me, for I call on God and expect an answer. I am a just and blameless man, yet they laugh at me.”</i>—Job‬ 12‬:4‬ (NLT)</strong><br /><br /> People who “hear from God” seem very unusual sometimes. When Joseph was a young man, he told his family about dreams he had in the night. His older brothers and doting father were absolutely offended. Not only did Joseph claim the dream was from God, Joseph was the hero in the story he narrated! The audacity! <em>Joseph will surely get what’s coming to him</em>, his brothers schemed.<br /><br /> Young King David developed a very unique relationship with God through the solitude of tending and protecting his father’s flock in the wilderness. It was there he trained to listen carefully and discern the voice of God.<br /><br /> When David met his older brothers on the battlefield, they were weary from daily humiliation, blasphemies, and taunts from their enemies including the giant Goliath. David answered their blaspheming with faith-filled words. David’s words offended the sensibilities of his cynical, overly sensitive brothers. To them, he appeared presumptuous and arrogant. <em>David will surely get what’s coming to him</em>, his brothers connived.<br /><br /> When Job was being laughed at, he actually had a reputation for being a “just and blameless man.” Yet calamity struck Job’s life and ramped up in frequency and intensity that shocked the entire community. So much so that it made his neighbors and friends—<em>even his wife</em>—scorn him despite his spotless reputation. <em>Job is surely getting what’s coming to him</em>, they all thought.<br /><br /> Jesus tells us, “Pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6 NLT). This private place is where Jesus transforms our lives so that His kingdom can break through and impact the kingdoms of this world.<br /><br /> Like David, John the Baptist learned to hear from God in the solitude of the wilderness. He, too, seemed unusual, counter-culture—always rubbing people the wrong way with God’s Word. It finally cost him his head.<br /><br /> When speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus said there wasn’t a greater prophet (Luke 7:28). The strange thing is Jesus never said that to John, He only said it about him. Personal satisfaction is never God’s goal for using you to deliver His message to people. God expresses Himself through you to bring His kingdom near.<br /><br /> So, rejoice if you’re treated like one of these heroes. Now you’re getting the job done.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/gods-words-get-job-done.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-6883386074800968300Thu, 21 Apr 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-04-21T09:00:26.009-04:00devoHow Growth Happens<strong><i>“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.”</i>—Luke 8:11‬ (NLT‬‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬</strong><br /><br /> When you read the beginning of Luke 8, where today’s verse is pulled from, you’ll find an eclectic group of people traveling the countryside with Jesus as He does ministry. In addition to the twelve disciples, part of the troupe includes some women—some of substantial means and some, at least one, with sordid backgrounds.<br /><br /> Here’s how Luke describes them: “Some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases . . . contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples” (Luke 8:2-3 NLT). These were women from varied social rungs, all following and supporting Jesus.<br /><br /> They’d been cured, healed, and delivered. Something life-transforming had happened in this small band of supporters. But even within this group of converted believers, there’s maintenance that needs to take place. Fruit needs to grow. Jesus uses examples from farming to make His point.<br /><br /> The Greek word for seed is <em>sporos</em>. The word sperm shares this Greek origin. Here’s the point about the “seed of the Word”: it impregnates. Gestation takes place, and, after a specific period of time, birth. Conditions must be healthy for good fruit to come from the seed of the Word. Later in Luke 8, Jesus describes conditions that cause this process to abort; to miscarry.<br /><br /> The <em>soil</em> is your life. It’s funny what just happened as I’m typing this up with my fat fingers on my tiny phone keyboard. I meant to type <strong>soil</strong>, but typed <strong>soul</strong>. This little mishap makes me think a little differently. <strong>Soul</strong> and <strong>soil</strong> work interchangeably in this parable of Jesus. Dallas Willard says, “A person who is prepared and capable of responding to the situations of life in ways that are ‘good and right’ is a person whose soul is in order, under the direction of a well-kept heart, in turn under the direction of God.”<br /><br /> Opposition to growth and fruit is <em>always</em> present. <em>Always, always, ALWAYS.</em> You can count on temptations and distractions to damage your soil—your <strong>soul</strong>. They’re <strong>always</strong> there. But along with that is an expectation from Jesus that it is possible to overcome what damages your soil and maintain a healthy nourishing environment for the seed of God’s Word to grow and bear fruit. What can you do to prepare the field where seed is sown? Do rocks need to be cleared out? Do paths for irrigation need to be dug? Do some weeds need to be pulled? Let’s roll up our sleeves and plow.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/how-growth-happens.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-7248897803595409126Mon, 18 Apr 2016 13:00:00 +00002016-04-18T14:24:50.543-04:00devoFaith That Gets Things Done<b><i>“For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.”</i>—1 Corinthians 4:17 (NKJV)</b><br /><br />Staff Sergeant Roundtree was a drill instructor I had in boot camp. I’ll never forget the lessons I learned from him. There were drill instructors who used fear and rank to drive, push, and threaten physical punishment. But that wasn’t Roundtree. When he gave orders, he modeled it first. He led from the front and we followed if we could keep up. He developed strength and identified skills in us we never knew we had.<br /><br />Encouragement and strength were the tools he used to chisel us into combat trained Marines. He held a black belt in karate, was an expert marksman, and an elite infantryman, yet he modeled genuine faith in Jesus Christ—in or out of uniform—and encouraged everyone under his leadership to seek hard after God. His style of getting things done was one of the reasons I became a follower of Jesus.<br /><br />This kind of leadership is different than you’d expect. In the New Testament, there’s a military leader that also breaks the clichéd mold. He was a Roman centurion, the leader and trainer of one hundred of the world’s most elite, disciplined, and feared soldiers in history.<br /><br />This centurion wanted Jesus to come and heal his sick servant. He could have used his authority and resources to compel Jesus to do his bidding. But this is how he addressed Jesus, “I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you . . .” (Luke 7:7 NIV). Romans were known for brutality, not humility. Jesus commended this leader for a distinguishing kind of faith. This is the kind of faith that gets things done.<br /><br />Paul taught Timothy to “follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV). Paul doesn’t brand himself with religious self-importance. He doesn’t wield his authority by driving Timothy from behind a desk. Paul positions himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Timothy and mentors through on-the-job training. Paul produced a faithful fidelity in Timothy that made Timothy <i>dependable</i> and <i>send</i>-able. Timothy would get the work of laying foundations of faith in the church at Corinth done. As Christians, that’s the kind of leaders you and I need to be, because how we serve Jesus impacts how others may or may not follow us to Heaven.<br /><br />http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/faith-that-gets-things-done.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-771973810341947302Sat, 16 Apr 2016 18:27:00 +00002016-05-30T16:01:19.984-04:00book reviewsbooksLove Equals Live<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C0BaWfGq0gc/VxKDnq3GUQI/AAAAAAAAIV4/HB5u3cdmOJcPpsXNv8W2v1_QaImJ_7amQCLcB/s1600/lovedoesbook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C0BaWfGq0gc/VxKDnq3GUQI/AAAAAAAAIV4/HB5u3cdmOJcPpsXNv8W2v1_QaImJ_7amQCLcB/s320/lovedoesbook.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>photo credit: bobgoff.com</em></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="wp-caption-text"><em><br /></em></div>Book Review: <em>Love Does</em><br />Author: Bob Goff<br />Nashville, Thomas Nelson, 2012<br />240 pages<br /><br /> Love is the topic. “I’m not that great at spelling and thankfully my phone autocorrects the words I type for me,” writes speaker, author, and lawyer Bob Goff in his book <em>Love Does</em>. “What I’ve noticed, though, is that almost every time I type in the word <em>love</em>, it gets changed to the word <em>live</em>.”<br /><br /> Love is an action word. Love acts. Love is something you become familiar with through repetitive doing. Through loving. Loving actions are fully satisfying but you need to keep doing them because you build an appetite for what love produces. Love has a duplication effect that is exponential because it is contagious. Love changes. Love makes a difference. Love doesn’t care what anyone thinks of it because love isn’t thinking of its own image. Love doesn’t care who’s watching because love doesn’t look over its own shoulder. Love’s inertia keeps love moving forward. Love does. This is what the reader learns from Goff’s stories in this book.<br /><br /> In one story, Randy made a huge sacrifice in a personal relationship to care for a younger, naive version of Bob Goff before he was an author or lawyer or anything and didn’t know he’d <em>be</em> anything because he didn’t know how the world worked. As Randy mentored young master Goff, Randy never gave any indication to Bob what investing in someone at a crucial time in life could cost. Bob never even knew he was being schooled because Randy was such a humble mentor. That’s how love does it. Love doesn’t lord it.<br /><br /> Goff tells the story of the first time he heard about Jesus from a sniper named Doug. Bob learned that when you choose to follow Jesus and do what Jesus does, and take the words of Jesus at face value, typical stands in the shadow of radical. Normal isn’t even noticed. Love is not normal.<br /><br /> In another story, Goff tells us about the time he opens his front door to a young stranger in love. The smitten stranger wants to use Bob’s backyard to marry his girlfriend. The lengths this young stranger goes to in order to demonstrate his love for this girl redefines <em>smitten</em>. Love is extravagant.<br /><br /> You don’t have to read this book from front to back to enjoy it. Start in chapter ten, for example, where you’ll see what kind of a crazy, think-out-side-of-the-box parent Goff is. After he tells his young kids about what happened on September 11, 2001, he helps them process history in the making by giving the kids this assignment: “If you had five minutes in front of a group of world leaders, what would you ask them to help make sense of life, faith, hope, and the events unfolding around them?” In chapter ten you’ll read what happens when answers to the letters start rolling in.<br /><br /> Goff shamed me as I read and cried and was entertained. Most people don’t have the resources Goff has to do the globetrotting he does or play with the kind of toys he gets to play with. But does that mean my faith has to be smaller or that I have to love less? Can’t I love where I am with what I have? I think so. Jesus doesn’t need anything from me <em>but me</em> to love and work and impact the world through me.<br /><br /> At times, super extroverted Goff’s perspective seemed out of balance only because he loves so unusually. To the introverts among us, this is intimidating. But it should be inspiring. We might not do what Goff does, but that doesn’t mean that love doesn’t work through us. Introvert or extrovert, love doesn’t care and love can get done through you, too.<br /><br /> This book was written for you. It’s quite possible you may feel stuck and stale and ready for something to happen that will change everything. Here’s the rub: The chances that something is going to happen <em>to</em> you are low. You need to be intentional about love. You need to <em>do</em> love. As you do love, you’ll forget <em>stuck</em> and <em>stale</em>. Skeptical? Read the book. You have something stored up in you that hasn’t been seen in a while. Or maybe you didn’t know it was there at all. But love will be stirred up in you nonetheless. And you’ll have to <em>do</em> it. Read the book.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/love-equals-live.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-7013964875491970779Sat, 16 Apr 2016 18:08:00 +00002016-04-16T14:09:00.723-04:00devoHow to Stay Lost and Unfound<b><i>“But they won’t get away with this for long. Someday everyone will recognize what fools they are, just as with Jannes and Jambres.”</i>—2 Timothy 3:9 (NLT)</b><br /><br />“I think this is our exit,” she says. “If we don’t take this exit now, we’ll be late to dinner.” She is annoyed by tardiness of any kind.<br /><br />“I got this,” I tell her. “The next exit will work. I know an old shortcut.” I hate being corrected. I like to be right. I turned up the radio.<br /><br />It turned out that the road had been completely rerouted and my old shortcut didn’t exist anymore. We were completely lost, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and there was nothing I could do about it. My chance to make the smart choice has passed. My wife doesn’t say, “I told you so.” She doesn’t have to.<br /><br />Self-deception is the worst kind of deception. Not while you’re actually going through it though. While you’re in the middle, believing your lie, you’re fat, dumb, and happy. <i>Ignorance is bliss</i>, they say.<br /><br />Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses with their lies. They were so caught up in the buzz they created with their magic that they didn’t know how close to the end their time had come. They were reading the wrong road map and didn’t realize it. Plagues were coming. They were clueless about the miraculous shock and awe that was coming from the Creator of the Universe.<br /><br />Often, when you’re lost, you don’t know you need to be found. You’re not open to correction because that takes humility and admitting error. My friend, these are things you have very little experience with.<br /><br /><i>Ignorance is bliss?</i> Ignorance leads to further lost-ness. We’re better off following the example of zealous young atheists. There is an interesting plot-twist in so many atheists’ stories; C.S. Lewis is one that comes to mind. In his zeal to prove the “falsity” of Christianity, he thoroughly investigated the facts; he <i>processed truth</i>. Truth brings the honest searcher to both the historic and metaphoric foot of the cross where real decisions must be made. Men like C.S. Lewis, and in our generation, Lee Strobel, embrace the One they set out to disprove. The wonderful irony is they themselves became found.<br /><br />We should make it a life-rule to never prove our own right-ness, especially at the expense of the truth. If you don’t find a map and get back on course, you will stay lost and you may find out after it’s too late.http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/how-to-stay-lost-and-unfound.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-1250483124066212419Fri, 15 Apr 2016 19:20:00 +00002016-04-15T16:03:14.448-04:00devofakehypocrisyreligionSecret Places<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vNl-BNB9aAo/VxC4IFPqTGI/AAAAAAAAIVA/QhrmLS894Xw/s640/blogger-image--715463109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vNl-BNB9aAo/VxC4IFPqTGI/AAAAAAAAIVA/QhrmLS894Xw/s640/blogger-image--715463109.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: &quot;helvetica neue light&quot; , , &quot;helvetica&quot; , &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">To the religious people among us: </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">do not play-act</b><span style="font-family: &quot;helvetica neue light&quot; , , &quot;helvetica&quot; , &quot;arial&quot; , sans-serif;">. You (we) will be busted. That bit the Jesus says in a parable about the sin you do in secret being shouted from the roof tops, Don't think that that event is going to happen in the sweet by-and-by. That could happen today when your wife or kids find the port on your phone. It can happen when your neighbor who you invite to church every Christmas and Easter (<i>that's the only time you talk to them, you know, when there's that big church program attendance push</i>), catches you at Winn-Dixie or Applebee's raking store clerk or server over the coals because she got your order so horribly wrong (<i>you know the one–you left her a Jesus tract that looks like a $100 bill instead of a tip</i>). Your neighbor will tell her whole house and all the other parents down at the ball field about how you're "religious" but mean. That's happening already.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Who we are in secret is <i>who we are</i>. You want to know how to be religious? Don't tell anybody you're religious!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="text Matt-6-5" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">5&nbsp;</span><i>“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing&nbsp;in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.</i></span>&nbsp;<span class="text Matt-6-6" id="en-NIV-23289" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; vertical-align: top;">6&nbsp;</span><i>But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father,&nbsp;who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.</i> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:5-6&amp;version=NIV" target="_blank">Matt 6:5-6 (NIV)</a></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/secret-places.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-697450933182412765Thu, 14 Apr 2016 11:52:00 +00002016-04-14T07:52:23.620-04:00devoLeadershipRomansSubmissionWorkThe Anxiety of Being a Slave"... a slave of Christ Jesus..." Romans 1:1<div><br></div><div>The thought of being a slave shoots my anxiety levels through the roof. As I write this, I'm remembering I haven't done my morning chores and that sense of leaving dirty dishes in the sink has me looking over my shoulder for Chef Nick, the first boss I ever had a teenage dishwasher. Nick ran a tight ship and everyone knew he was the boss. He made sure of it. Nick was a huge man with a furious temper. He was driven and demanded excellence. No. Nick demanded perfection.</div><div><br></div><div>My next job was the Marines. During the first few weeks of boot camp, I never missed a boss so much as I missed Nick. If I thought <i>he</i> was a terrorizing, exacting, humiliating, micro-managing boss, I hadn't seen nothing yet. No one's a tougher boss than your drill instructor. Nothing gives you more anxiety than having one of those muscle bound, government empowered, spitting-saliva-into-your-face-while-they-scream-at-you-from-an-inch-away United States Marine Corps drill instructors.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Oh how I longed for Nick's standard of driving results. He was a <i>teddy bear</i>. That's how I remember Nick now.</div><div><br></div><div>You've had all kinds of bosses in your life. Some harsh and some are remembered fondly, even affectionately. It's the harsh ones that evoke the anxiety I'm talking about. You get that. You remember them most. That needs no explanation. Your boss humiliates you, undermines your work, and is demonstrably irritated by your presence. Or are you the boss and this is how people describe you? You probably don't know it.</div><div><br></div><div>Ultimately, my problem, the source of my anxiety when I read these words of Paul is that I hate – no, <i><b><u>HATE!</u></b></i> – being a slave. That's the bottom line. I even hate the idea of being the slave of Jesus when the title "slave" is attached to the description of me. But here's what I know about Him as a Master:</div><div>•The work he gives you is light.</div><div>•His work is only good.</div><div>•The provision He provides is nourishing.</div><div>•His assignments benefit others</div><div>•Slavery under Jesus is a supremely freeing way to work or live—certainly superior to any alternative offered by any other master.</div><div><br></div><div>When I'm in the role of a slave, I need to remember this about my Master. When I'm the boss, I need to represent the example of my Master. He only does good things.</div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/04/the-anxiety-of-being-slave.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-3637164097246531474Sun, 24 Jan 2016 01:17:00 +00002016-01-23T20:18:17.301-05:00Pray for Allie<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8frOu8knWPU/VqQmFemCyII/AAAAAAAAIHk/ciyUdLTgUt8/s640/blogger-image--1679662512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8frOu8knWPU/VqQmFemCyII/AAAAAAAAIHk/ciyUdLTgUt8/s640/blogger-image--1679662512.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><h1 class="title" style="font-size: 1.25em; line-height: 1.4em; -webkit-hyphens: manual; margin-bottom: 1em; max-width: 100%; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font;"><span style="font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal;">Allie goes in Monday to have her right hip repositioned. Her hip has migrated out of joint because her bones grow faster than her muscles. So, like a bow string pulled tight, her bones have too much tension on them.</span></h1><p style="max-width: 100%; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">What the doctor will do:</p><p style="max-width: 100%; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">1) break and re-position her femur.</p><p style="max-width: 100%; color: rgb(27, 27, 27); font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 18px;">2) break her pelvis and re-shape her hip joint socket to receive her hip bone.</p><p style="max-width: 100%;"><font color="#1b1b1b" face="-apple-system-font" size="4">Allie had this operation done six years ago on both hips. Read this to learn about Allie's first go 'round with this operation. --&gt;&nbsp;</font><font color="#000000" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.bryonmondok.com/2009/03/allie-status.html?m=0" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.bryonmondok.com/2009/03/allie-status.html</a></font></p><p style="max-width: 100%;"><font color="#1b1b1b" face="-apple-system-font" size="4">To learn more about Allie, read this --&gt;&nbsp;</font><font color="#000000" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.bryonmondok.com/2010/12/story-of-allie.html?m=1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.bryonmondok.com/2010/12/story-of-allie.html</a></font></p><p style="max-width: 100%;"><br></p></div><div><br></div>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/01/pray-for-allie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-9165835908109503392Sat, 16 Jan 2016 19:37:00 +00002016-01-16T14:41:26.063-05:00Calvary Chapel Fort LauderdaledevoFuture Christlikeness Right Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+15%3A45&amp;version=NKJV" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+15%3A45&amp;version=NKJV" border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_vKt24FML84/VpqbmEkh9kI/AAAAAAAAIHQ/nSZPf_jLu1c/s320/1cor15.45.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><b><i>“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”</i>—<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+cor+15%3A45&amp;version=NKJV" target="_blank">1 Corinthians 15:45</a> (NKJV)</b><br /><br />As I write this, I’m a little under the weather. My little girl brought home a bug from school, and it has been incubating and multiplying in our home, inflicting us with scratchy throats and sneezing noses.<br /><br />So much of our time, energy, and resources go toward maintaining, feeding, clothing, housing, and pampering our bodies. These bodies decay. There’s no way around this fact—no matter how much we try to condition, exercise, or get nipped and tucked.<br /><br />The Bible says that not only is man longing for the return of Christ and our redemption, but all of creation is waiting for this as well. When man fell, creation fell with him. Now, man is at odds with creation and it won’t be until everything is fully delivered that God’s original intention for true harmony will be restored. Every tree and plant that is so pleasing to the eye—if left on its own—will fall over to die, decay, and dissolve back into the earth.<br /><br />As beautiful as creation is, it is subject to death.<br /><br />There is a drastic contrast between “a living being” and “life-giving spirit.” The former rots. This is not news to any of us. The latter will never die. In resurrection, our bodies will be, in a sense, raised—animated by the Spirit of God. This is the kind of body Jesus has, and this is the kind of body we will one day have as His follower. When the spirit creates our new bodies, they will never wear out.<br />This is Christlikeness. If we follow Jesus now in a body that is subject to corruption and degeneration, we will follow Him in our soul’s restoration and have the same kind of heavenly body He has. That is the result of knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him. This is our future in the likeness of Christ.<br /><br />What if we started living our futures now? And what if we decided to scale back the time, energy, and resources that go toward pampering and improving the “self” that’s dying, and repurposed those resources toward the healing and redemption of the people we interact with in our world every day? For us, the future is now. There’s nothing like the present to be Christ-like.<br /><br /><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This Daily Devotional was originally published at <a href="http://www.calvaryftl.org/dailydevo" target="_blank">www.CalvaryFTL.org/DailyDevo</a></span></i> http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/01/future-christlikeness-right-now.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-3292953494987835857Wed, 06 Jan 2016 17:31:00 +00002016-01-16T14:00:21.813-05:00Calvary Chapel Fort LauderdaledevoHow to Find and Keep Practical Discernment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+1%3A2&amp;version=NKJV" target="_blank"><img alt="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+1%3A2&amp;version=NKJV" border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bCrn3gdVBB8/VpqQsUc386I/AAAAAAAAIGg/ccNJ58MxMVE/s320/prov1.2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><b><i>“To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding . . .”—</i></b><b><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+1%3A2&amp;version=NKJV" target="_blank">Proverbs 1:2</a> (NKJV)&nbsp;</b> <br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; width: 100%px;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="min-width: 100%; padding: 12px 18px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; border-top-color: #999999; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; min-width: 100%; width: 100%px;"> <tbody><tr> <td></td> </tr></tbody></table></td> </tr></tbody></table>When my son was a toddler, just learning to stand up on his own, all he wanted to do was run. He didn’t want to walk. He ran. He had no fear. He didn’t even have the smart kind of fear. This was scariest when we were at the beach. We’d be setting up our umbrella and picnic blankets, and he’d sprint for the water having no concept of swimming or drowning. He needed to learn a little bit about healthy fear.<br /><br />One has to learn how to <i>fear</i> God.<br /><br />In the Old Testament, the fear of God was a guiding principle for every aspect of life for as long as one lives on the earth.<br /><br />This verse and verses that follow give the purpose and payoff of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+1&amp;version=NKJV" target="_blank">Proverbs</a>. It’s an intensely practical book, applicable to every aspect of your life. It’s intellectual. It engages and exercises your brain. It’s moral. Justice, equity, and righteousness are constant themes, because they make sense. There was as much of an appetite for this in the ancient world as there is now. They flow from the heart God, into, and through His people.<br /><br />Proverbs features three conspicuous characters throughout its pages: the simple, the fool, and the wise. The simple man doesn’t commit, he’s easily misled, and doesn’t apply himself to discipline. This person needs to get Proverbs up and running in his life. The fool is opposed to God’s covenant, resists forgiveness, is a dangerous influence, and causes grief to his parents. The scary thing about the fool is that he moves freely among God’s people. But, believe it or not, he is not beyond hope. The wise person embraces the principles learned in this book. He makes good progress and is an example worth following. God desires that you be a wise person. That’s why He made sure this book has found its way into your hands.<br /><br />Proverbs begs to be probed, searched, and questioned closely. Proper relation to God involves trying hard to understand His truth and applying what you’ve learned. This book is not written for learning how to live life so that someday you’ll go to heaven when you die. It is written to teach you how to live in the fear of God, in the here and now, <i>until</i> you are present with Him in His kingdom.<br /><br />Now, go equip others to do the same.<br /><br /><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">This Daily Devotional was originally published at <a href="http://www.calvaryftl.org/dailydevo" target="_blank">www.CalvaryFTL.org/DailyDevo</a></span></i> http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/01/how-to-find-and-keep-practical.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-1651128912262221263Tue, 05 Jan 2016 16:04:00 +00002016-01-16T14:01:11.008-05:00Good News of South FloridaministryÜber Christ FollowersEvangelism: From the Street Corner to YouTube<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BvAsMrGFbaQ/VkVcrw6G73I/AAAAAAAAH-w/Dnz5XqXOx7Q/s1600/nick-v.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BvAsMrGFbaQ/VkVcrw6G73I/AAAAAAAAH-w/Dnz5XqXOx7Q/s400/nick-v.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.justusmartinphoto.com/#!/index" target="_blank">Justus Martin Photography</a> </td></tr></tbody></table><br />There’s an up and coming evangelist that is widely believed to be well on his way to being the most prolific gospel preacher of our time. Nick Vujicic (pronounced VOO-yee-cheech), affectionately known as the guy with no arms or legs, is on a mission to spread a message of hope. He’s consistently packing out stadiums, school auditoriums, church sanctuaries, and headlining conferences and special events all over the globe. Nick is unique in his disability for sure, but he isn’t the first imperfect man to make evangelism his life’s work. He follows a well-worn path that has been paved by many great men before him.<br /><br /><br /><section class="clear-section"><div class="container reader"><div class="row"><div class="col-xs-12">The street corner evangelist has always been a peculiar character. He was bold and, seemingly, anti-social. He lacked polish and decent manners, but was passionate and wild-eyed—creating discussion around subjects that would guarantee the disruption of a polite dinner conversation. He didn’t seem to care what people thought about him.<br /><br />John Wesley was one such character. He had bricks, eggs, and rotten vegetables thrown at him with regularity by haters and hecklers as he preached the gospel on street corners and in city centers. He and his brother Charles founded the Methodist movement in England and exported it to America, but they were constantly at odds with one another, cutting short their endeavor as American missionaries. Despite their rocky ministry relationship, their influence left a legacy. In the nineteenth century, the Methodist church was the largest Protestant denomination in America.<br /><br />Preacher John Cennick, a man influenced by the Wesleys’ ministry, was antagonized with gross brutality as he preached at a rally in Swindon, England in 1741. Catapults were filled with raw sewage and muskets were fired over his head. When one family opened their home to Cennick as refuge, an effigy of the preacher was burned in front of the house, while rocks smashed through the windows. But John Cennick went on to write and publish hymns that have been sung by multitudes of believers over the past couple of centuries.<br /><br />Charles Spurgeon made earnest appeals to massive crowds, urging them to repent and turn to Jesus. In London, he was targeted with intense slander and scorn. His health was poor; he was afflicted with gout. He experienced intense anxiety, bearing the weight of many souls. During one event where twenty thousand people were present, a brigand shouted, “Fire!” Seven people were trampled to death and twenty-eight were hospitalized in the panic that ensued.<br /><br />Spurgeon is remembered for his commitment to sound doctrine and theology through a particularly tumultuous period in the late 1800’s when false doctrine, skepticism, weak theology, and atheism were all becoming entrenched in Western culture. His life and body of work continues to influence young preachers and church planters who have a passion for preaching Christ, the purity of the gospel, and the urgency of living a repentant and humble life before a watching world.<br /><br />Over the last century, preaching and evangelism evolved from the street corner to massive stadium venues where people gather around massive sound systems and giant high definition monitors. The endless visibility that modern technology provides has produced a crop of media savvy men with polished, high-impact presentations. Stadium evangelism is an industry. It was pioneered by baseball player Billy Sunday in the early part of the twentieth century and perfected by Billy Graham throughout the rest of the twentieth century.<br /><br />Early in his ministry, Graham had an associate, Charles Templeton, who partnered with him at evangelistic rallies around the country. Despite success and an incredible ability to influence people, Templeton, plagued with doubts and questions, grew skeptical and had a crisis of faith. Unanswered questions left him in a vacuum of doubt so great that he would no longer preach a Bible he couldn’t believe. This shook Graham to the core. He couldn’t answer Templeton’s questions and couldn’t persuade him to come back to the faith. Yet, even as he wrestled with tremendous doubt in those early years, it is widely believed that Graham has preached to more souls around the world than anyone in human history.<br /><br />The influence of Billy Graham’s ministry produced a pack of Baby Boomer preachers who have become household names. Luis Palau, Greg Laurie, and Billy Graham’s son and successor, Franklin, have filled stadiums around the world for decades. Now, there’s a crop of young, hip, upstart preachers that we’ll be hearing from in years to come. Levi Lusko and Carl Lentz are well on their way to becoming household names, should they hold true to the course. Their stories are yet to be written.<br /><br />And then there is Nick Vujicic who is, by far, the most fascinating young preacher filling stadiums and mega venues right now. Vujicic was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare congenital condition. Growing up, the only thing he ever wanted was to be like the other kids, but bullies relentlessly targeted Nick. Loneliness, depression, and suicidal thoughts plagued him until he came to terms with his disability. At the age of seventeen, he founded the non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs.<br /><br />Vujicic has a body pre-made for victimization, yet he uses it as a platform to bring his anti-bullying and suicide prevention message to students around the world. He knows firsthand how cruel the world can be, but Nick remains convinced and drives home the message that all people are fueled by a deep need for Jesus, even if they don’t know it yet. This is what compels him to carry Christ’s message of hope, forgiveness, and mercy to anyone who will listen.<br /><br />Vujicic’s delivery of the gospel is absolutely one-of-a-kind. His online presence is viral on every social media platform. He’s appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and was recently the subject of the TV special <i>Born Without Limbs</i>, which aired on The Learning Channel earlier this year.<br /><br />Nick Vujicic stands on the shoulders of the imperfect men who went before him. Their struggles were real, their heritage rich, and their accomplishments covered with the fingerprints of God. As diverse as this group of ancient and modern day preachers is, they share one common bond: they all bet their very lives on the most binding and timeless miracle in world history—the saving truth of the gospel.<br /><hr /><i>This article originally appears in <a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/" target="_blank">The Good News of South Florida</a> under the title <a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/nick-vujicic-draws-crowds-like-great-evangelists-before-him-2/" target="_blank">Nick Vujicic Draws Crowds like Great Evangelists Before Him</a></i></div></div></div></section> http://www.bryonmondok.com/2016/01/evangelism-from-street-corner-to-youtube.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17744322.post-3369521631302079348Fri, 18 Dec 2015 16:18:00 +00002016-01-05T15:17:10.235-05:00missionsÜber Christ FollowersGood News of South Florida: Fort Lauderdale Missionary Serving in Syrian Refugee Crisis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://calvaryftl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Lisa-Collins.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://calvaryftl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Lisa-Collins.jpeg" height="200" width="200" /></a><i></i></div><i>I've been able to spend some time with my missionary friend <a href="http://calvaryftl.org/mission_map/lisa-collins/" target="_blank">Lisa Collins</a> who is visiting for the holidays. I wrote this article about her and the work she's doing in Hungary.</i><br /><hr />Syria is experiencing the biggest exodus of people since the Rwandan war 20 years ago. While the brutality of the war in Rwandan was horrific, thanks to the Internet and ISIS, the atrocities of this war in Syria come to us via graphic social media images of beheadings and drowned children washed up on European Mediterranean beaches. It will take some time to forget the pictures we’ve seen. At least we should pray it does. But one Fort Lauderdale resident, Lisa Collins, who is serving as a missionary in Hungary, has witnessed the human struggle first hand as part of a team from Calvary Chapel Budapest.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://calvaryftl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/hungary-refugee-crowd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://calvaryftl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/hungary-refugee-crowd.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Streets crowded with refugees in Budapest. photo credit: Facebook</td></tr></tbody></table><b>The multitudes</b><br />Although it has only recently received media attention, the Syrian war is entering its fourth year. Over 23 million people have been uprooted. Six thousand people a day flee. Syria’s neighbor, Lebanon has taken in over a million displaced Syrians (that’s 220 refugees for every 1000 Lebanese residents according to the United Nations Refugee Agency) but has closed it’s borders. They can’t take any more refugees. Jordan has taken in another 630,000, but, overwhelmed, has also said, “No more.” Egypt has taken 133,000, Iraq a quarter of a million, and Turkey 1.8 million. Sadly, nearby oil-rich nations Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while they’ve donated some funds, have officially taken in zero of their neighbors in flight.<br /><br />By October 2015, applications for asylum in Europe exceed 507,000, 47 percent of applicants are bound for Germany.<br /><br />One family-of-four paid $6,500 to board a three-man raft with eight other people to travel from the shores of Turkey to Kos, Greece. The family moved into a ferry boat set up by the government of Greece to temporarily house refugees. For some children, the flight from war has ended with them drowned, washed up on Turkish beaches short of their destination across the Mediterranean Sea.<br />Thousands of refugees make it across the Mediterranean Sea and travel to countries like Greece, Serbia, Macedonia and Hungary.<br /><br />The massive migration of refugees has overwhelmed services as crowds have migrated through European streets. Public transportation has been totally choked and shut down. Collapsed.<br /><br /><b>No place to go</b><br />Police in body armor and lexan shields roll out razor wire along the border between Macedonia and Greece to stem the flow of migrants across borders. Time stands still as refugees are held in limbo sequestered at borders. In Germany, the intended destination for the refugees, bus loads of immigrants are pelted with rocks and bottles while across town counter pro-migration protests are held where banners fly saying “Refugees Welcome Racists Not.”<br /><br />Angelina Jolie, the actress and humanitarian who acts as a special envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, shared these thoughts in a recent speech:<br /><br />“Who can blame them for thinking that we have given up on them? Only a fraction of the humanitarian aid they need is being provided. There has been no progress on ending the war in Syria since the Geneva process collapsed 12 months ago. Syria is in flames, and areas of Iraq are gripped by fighting. The doors of many nations are bolted against them. There is nowhere they can turn.”<br /><br /><b>The struggle in Hungary</b><br />Once in Greece, the journey to Germany takes travelers through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Austria. The Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, was shut down as it was overwhelmed by the flood of refugees travelling from Hungary to Germany. Hungary issued an order to churches threatening punishment if they gave quarter to refugees passing through.<br /><br />“They’re not refugees. This is an invasion,” said Bishop László Kiss-Rigó, whose dominion stretches across the southern reaches of this predominantly Catholic nation. “They come here with cries of ‘Allahu Akbar.’ They want to take over.”<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://calvaryftl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/hungary-train-station.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://calvaryftl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/hungary-train-station.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Refugees camp out in Budapest train station. photo credit: Facebook</td></tr></tbody></table>Fort Lauderdale area resident Lisa Collins lives in Vajta, Hungary, as a missionary. She said she hasn’t witnessed anyone trying to take over, but she did see thousands of people in need. She, along with members of the church she attends, was at the Keleti train station when it was shut down under the crush of the multitude trying to get to Western Europe. A team from Calvary Chapel Budapest and volunteers were there daily passing out water and food to travelers in need. Church members and community volunteers also traveled to quickly constructed, make-shift refugee camps on the Hungarian border with Serbia to disperse food and water and help people get out of the cold. As camps were shut down, the team helped refugees get on buses to get registered for travel to other destinations outside Hungary.<br /><br />Collins and her team continue to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of refugees hoping for passage out of Hungary. “Six refugees got baptized yesterday,” Collins said. “Their hunger for the Word is contagious. We gave them Bibles Saturday. One guy held his up and said, ‘in my country I’d be put to death to have this in my home.’”<br /><br />I asked Collins how one prepares for such a massive migration of people in desperation. She said, “From my perspective, in this current situation, the need is beyond overwhelming–financially, emotionally and spiritually. So what you do is simply love on the one right in front of you.”<br /><br /><hr /><i>This article originally appears in <a href="http://goodnewsfl.org/fort-lauderdale-missionary-serving-in-syrian-refugee-crisis/" target="_blank">The Good News of South Florida</a></i>http://www.bryonmondok.com/2015/12/good-news-of-south-florida-fort.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bryon Mondok)0